Never before had I felt so in-tuned with my own body until pregnancy. Looking at the pictures taken at the first trimester, both Michael and I are shocked at how slim I was and how big my body is stretching! What goes on inside my body is probably so complex that no books can describe, our bodies are amazing machines that have been refined over millions or billions of years by nature.

I have to be very thankful that so far I have not had any major problems, which I didn’t really expect either. I didn’t like the fact that I was labeled as high-risk just because of the twins even though I understand there’s a whole lot more mix of hormones and growth inside my body. But the confidence I have with my body always seems to be winning, coupled with a good diet and regular exercises.

Being in the third trimester is not as easy though, swelling, headache, joint aches, and just the weight of the babies really start to slow me down. I noticed couple of things, the tiredness came back, now I drink even more water, and must take my daily afternoon nap for at least an hour or two, it’s great for the growth of the babies but I do it because my body tells me to do so; I also read about an excellent tip in the Lamaze Official Guide to Birth, that the best position of babies for labor and delivery is not just being head down, but also occiput anterior, meaning the baby’s head is against the belly not the back, which causes least amount of pain during labor. Here is an illustration on the fetal position. In order for the babies to get into this position, semi-reclining position is not good actually in the final weeks, so I have to adjust to upright sitting, and get rid of the dozen pillows I use at night, and lay flat on my left side (by the way, still love the maternity pillow).

I read about the pain over and over in different books, the fear of labor pain is really not necessary, since its a good thing, and its interesting that women, like many other mammals, need a secure and safe environment to birth, no wonder the setting is so important otherwise the labor stalls. In nature, it’s a protective mechanism of making sure the mother can have her young safely during her most vulnerable time.

Michael and I continue to walk everyday, and we both really enjoy it, it’s definitely taking a bit longer since I can’t walk as fast as I did before. Along our trail, we always find interesting things to entertain ourselves, there were a pair of swans (lately just one, we think the female is hatching eggs since the male one has been patrolling the whole pond) chasing the geese and ducks all the time, and the ducks checking out the fake hippo in the community pool, but what’s really amazing was that we found at the Poulte construction site, there’s a new mommy bird just laid four eggs on a pile of rocks (see picture), we had no idea why she picked that spot since it’s literally right by the greenway. Yesterday when we approached her, she’s only about a feet away from us, chirping at us then she took off and spreading her wings and tails in front of us like giving us a show or pretending she had broken wings. We quickly realized it was an act of distraction, since we found the eggs where she was hatching, after we walked past her, she went straight back to her spot in the pile of rocks. I don’t know if her babies will be able to survive especially after they come out, it’s not a great spot since people walking with dogs will easily see them. But it’s amazing how nature creates these instincts in all of us, and how mothers all protect their babies. We saw her again today with her four eggs, and she was doing the same act, really cute.

It kind of reinforces my belief that a woman should really trust her body rather than the machines in the hospital, which can harm women in some cases (here is actually what really happened – the Pemberton case – mind blowing stuff) and birth is really a natural process, listening and working with our body, knowing that we are born with the ability to birth, without evaluation and interruption unless there’s a problem, is the most beautiful and healthy way.